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Pete Seeger May 3, 2019 | a by Chip Rowe

Pete Seeger May 3, 2019 | a by Chip Rowe

Illustration by Grego Anderson

Remembering Pete , 2019 | A By Chip Rowe

1919 Pete is born in to Jr., a Harvard-trained composer with pacifist views, and Constance de Clyver, a concert violinist. He is the youngest of the couple’s three sons.

1920 The family sets out in a Model T ordF hauling a homemade trailer to perform classical music in the rural South. Pete’s mother ends the trip after she stops her toddler at the last moment from walking into a campfire.

Photo by Jennifer Lee Blakeslee

Pete on his father’s lap while mom plays the violin Remembering

1932 Pete buys a used, four-string (tenor) while attending a private high school in Connecticut but eventually olk singer and long- realizes he can’t play on it. Freddie Martin Florence Northcutt time Beacon resi- On a Monday evening, Jan. 27, 2014, Little did I think some 35 years ago, the day Pete died at age 94, I opened a while on a ferryboat trip from Algeci- dent Pete Seeger letter from him containing the chord ras, Spain, across to Morocco, hear- 1936 would have been chart and lyrics for a song we had ing a familiar song coming from the Pete hears the five-string banjo when his 100 years old today worked on together for some time, loudspeaker and singing along with father takes him to the Mountain Dance “Peace Will Prevail.” It was based on a number of passengers who knew and Folk Festival in . “I F(May 3), and celebrations and an ancient Irish air. it as well as I did, that I would one discovered there was some good music sing-a-longs are scheduled In late 2013, Pete asked the song circle day live in the same community as in my country that I never heard on the at the Beacon Sloop Club to practice the song’s performer. “We Shall Over- radio,” he recalled. across the country, as well as the release of a box set that civil-rights songs for a citizens’ march come” reached to the far corners of the on the upcoming Martin Luther King world, and its message is as powerful spans his career and includes Jr. Day. While rehearsing the songs with as it was that day during the height of 1938 20 unreleased tracks (see Page the Spring Street Baptist Church choir, the civil-rights movement. Pete, a member of the Young 2). We asked those who knew I realized “Peace Will Prevail” needed a I feel privileged to have known Pete Communist League, grows disillusioned and encountered Pete and his gospel ending, so I wrote Pete. and to have seen him right here in our at Harvard and drops out. His From his hospital room, Pete had city working quietly, consistently and stepmother (his parents had divorced) wife, Toshi, to share stories. penned a note atop the song sheet, diligently to build awareness about our tells him, “Peter, you have a talent for referred to a chord change I had made, beautiful river and protecting our envi- song-leading. I think you should develop The contributions have been it.” He spends the summer traveling with condensed for clarity and space. thanked me for “working on it” and ronment. He has raised our conscious- the Vagabond . encouraged me: “You keep on!” It was ness in his modest, humble way, and our For more photos and memo- classic Pete, giving of his spirit and world is a better place, thanks to Pete. ries, see highlandscurrent.org. energy to others, giving until the end.

B | May 3, 2019 The Highlands Current Erin Giunta my late great aunt, Mabel Spinney, to learn in his own way. He took up the In 2013, I found myself in line behind had run a school that he attended job of running the newspaper, and he Pete at the Beacon Natural Market. in Litchfield and that her sister, my felt he had a voice. 1939 After he left the store, he got into his Aunt Milly, had observed, “We never The last time I saw Pete, he was Pete takes a job at the Library of sticker-covered green SUV and sat thought he’d amount to anything.” putting his recyclables at the foot of Congress in the Archive of American there for a while. That’s when I noticed his road. Pete answered his own mail. Folk Song. He meets something by my feet: Pete’s car keys! He emptied his own trash. And he when they both play the same benefit. I went outside and said, “I think these amounted to something. are yours, Pete.” “Thank you,” he said. “I thought I was losing my mind.” “Not Linda Richards 1940 yet, Pete. Not yet,” I said. When I was the education director Through a work connection, Pete Later, within a week after Toshi died, I at Clearwater, the nonprofit founded performs on radio programs with Guthrie, let him go ahead of me in line at Rite Aid. by Pete and Toshi, he called the office , and . The clerk greeted him with a big smile one January afternoon to talk about a and, “Hello, Mr. Seeger!” As he waited tent idea he had for that year’s Great for the prescription to be filled, I said, Revival. Pete was always 1941 “I’m so sorry about the loss of Toshi. I thinking about more ways to get more Pete is a founding member with Guthrie know she was a wonderful person.” He people involved in everything. of the , which releases took my hand and said, “Thank you. As I took notes, Pete asked if I’d like an album, Songs of John Doe, that is She’s the reason I was able to do what I to come over to talk more. “Do you critical of the draft. did. It was all because of her.” have ice skates?” he inquired. “Ummm Photo courtesy Sara Dulaney ... not on me,” I replied. “No problem – Sara Dulaney we have lots of skates here.” 1942 Pete as a boy at the Springhill School So I went over to the Seegers’ and Having been raised listening to After the U.S. enters the war, the , I was excited to learn ate dinner with Toshi and Pete and A short time later, I got a postcard Almanac Singers release a new album, about 1981 that they would be sing- their granddaughter, Moraya. After- Dear Mr. President, on which Pete sings: from Pete with a little banjo drawing. ing at something called the Clear- ward, I went over to the wood stove “Now, Mr. President, / We haven’t water Festival. I made my way, solo, He said that Aunt Mabel’s school had and saw a mountain of skates. Each always agreed in the past, I know, / But from Manhattan into the wilds of the been one of the most important expe- winter, Pete would hose down the that ain’t at all important now. / What is on a drizzly day. riences of his life. circular driveway (at 2 a.m.) to make a important is what we got to do, / We got I felt moved to write fan notes to Pete said that Springhill School rink. Pete put on skates and we skated to lick Mr. Hitler, and until we do, / Other

each of them. To Pete, I wrote that (now Forman School) encouraged him Next Page O things can wait.” … Pete is drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to the Pacific.

1943 Pete marries Toshi Ota. Their first son, Peter, dies at age six months while Pete is deployed. The couple will have three more children: Daniel, Mika and Tinya.

1948 Pete returns from the Army and, with three friends, forms The Weavers.

1949 Pete and Toshi, who are living with her parents in , buy 17 acres at the base of Mount Beacon and build a two-room log cabin. Pete joins the Dutchess Junction Volunteer Fire Department, and quits the Communist Party. “I thought it was pointless,” he said.

Pete works on the cabin in Beacon, circa 1950. Photo courtesy Gene Deitch

Remembering Pete Seeger May 3, 2019 | C around to the music of steel drums he piped into an outdoor sound system. I remember seeing the moon through the trees that cold evening and think- ing this was one of those nights you cherish for a lifetime.

Tom Chapin It began in 1957, near Andover, New Jersey, where we spent every childhood summer. Our Aunt Happy brought out an album called The Weavers at Carn- egie Hall. We were hooked from the clarion bugle call of Pete’s five-string banjo on the first song, “Darlin’ Corey.” To our amazement, Grandma Chapin had a five-string banjo in her Pete with Woody Guthrie, circa 1950 basement. We bought a copy of Pete’s book, How to Play the Five-String 1950 Banjo. I got a cheap steel string , The Weavers top the charts for 13 memorized chords and started using weeks with a cover of Lead Belly’s fingerpicks because Harry was so “Goodnight Irene.” Within a year, the loud on the banjo. At our first public group has sold 4 million records. Pete performance as the Chapin Brothers, tells Time: “It’s not so much fun now.” we played three songs by The Weavers. In 1975 or 1976, I was backstage at Huntington High School on Long 1952 Island with Pete before a bene- fit concert. A reporter asked Pete: The Weavers are blacklisted after an informant tells the House Un-American “You’ve spent your life doing concerts Activities Committee that three of its for causes. Has it made a difference?” four members, including Pete, are Pete thought a moment, then said in Communists. his calm, measured way: “I don’t know. But I do know that I’ve met the good people, people with live hearts, live eyes 1955 and live minds.” This was a quintessen- Pete at the in 2012 Photo by Tom Chapin tial Seeger answer, moving the conver- Pete is ordered to testify sation toward larger issues and the producing an audio tour that included before the committee. Stacy Labriola people he believed deserved credit. Many years ago Tony Trishka was stories about the river. MR. SEEGER: I feel that in my whole recording a banjo retrospective and He drove down from Beacon on a life I have never done anything of any wanted to include Pete. So he invited snowy day with a banjo in his little conspiratorial nature and I resent very Michael Bowman When I was in college, I got lost Pete to come to my husband Art’s black Honda. After about two hours, much and very deeply the implication of hiking between Breakneck and Mount studio at our home in Garrison. Pete we had everything we wanted, includ- being called before this committee that ing a performance of “Waist Deep in in some way because my opinions may Beacon and ended up in some guy’s came down from Beacon and regaled the Big Muddy.” But as we wrapped be different from yours, or yours, Mr. backyard. A tall man came out asking if the group with hours of recorded stories Willis, or yours, Mr. Scherer, that I am I needed help and with a smile pointed and did some banjo playing, as well. up, he asked if we’d like to hear three any less of an American than anybody me down his driveway toward Route After a day of recording, Pete said new verses that Toshi had written for else. I love my country very deeply, sir. 9D. Only later did I realize who it was. his goodbyes and headed out. About “Turn, Turn, Turn.” five minutes later there was a knock There we were, three of us in a tiny CHAIRMAN WALTER: Why don’t you room, and Pete serenading us with one make a little contribution toward Jennifer Blakeslee and it was Pete with a broken headlight of the greatest songs of the 20th century. preserving its institutions? At the 2013 Strawberry Festival, I he had found when exiting the drive- asked Pete if I might take his portrait. way. He handed it to us and asked that MR. SEEGER: I feel that my whole life is Afterward I thanked him for everything we recycle it properly. As he left, the Roger Coco a contribution. That is why I would like engineer on the project, Joe Johnson, to tell you about it. he’d done for Beacon and the environ- In the early 1970s, I led wilderness ment, and he said, “Ahhh, but you don’t said, “There, you have your Pete Seeger trips near the Hudson River for Ameri- CHAIRMAN WALTER: I don’t want to hear know the foolish things I’ve done!” story!” Happy birthday, Pete! can Youth Hostels. The protest against about it. a proposed pump storage plant on Michael Mell Storm King was in full swing. Pete We had just moved to Cold Spring had sent a postcard with a photo of the and my eldest son was in grade school Clearwater to the AYH office asking if at Haldane. At a “Differences Day” cele- “Strider” (my nickname) could guide bration in the cafeteria, Pete Seeger a group of protesters and reporters walked in, banjo in hand, along with two through the woods and valleys with parents who were musicians, as if it were Pete yodeling and singing against the the most natural thing in the world. echoes of the waterfalls of Stag-nun I was gobsmacked. The last Pete Creek, up and over Butter Hill and to Seeger concert I attended was at Carn- the bottom of Storm King. egie Hall. After that I would occasion- I had no idea who he was, and I ally see him, with wool cap and plaid don’t know how he got my name. What shirt, exiting Angelina’s with a pie. I would a peace-loving liberal want regret never having said hello. with an old-time conservative like me? We were lucky that day, there was Robert Cutler no trouble. Instead, we stood victori- In 2012, Toni Bryan and I inter- ous at the bottom of Storm King, and viewed Pete at Boscobel. We were Seeger whipped a monopoly.

D | May 3, 2019 The Highlands Current 1955 The Weavers regroup to play a sold-out show at . But Pete leaves in 1957 after the other three members agree to do a cigarette commercial.

1957 Pete is indicted on 10 counts of . He is convicted in 1961 and given a year in jail but the sentence is overturned on appeal.

1959 At the , writer Studs Terkel introduces Pete as “America’s tuning fork.”

1960 Pete and others popularize the spiritual “We Will Overcome” as the anthem of the . Pete says he changed “will” to “shall” to John Cronin tell you that this is where Pete Seeger accordion player, he wrote Pete a fan make it easier to sing. There we were, in Beacon in 1972, lived. When I moved here, I knew letter, and Pete wrote back on a post- and this big boat comes sailing in, where Pete’s house was before I knew card with a drawing by Ed Sorel show- and, for God’s sake, there’s Pete Seeger where the hardware store was. ing Pete with his banjo outrunning 1962 Although I can’t carry a tune, I the Horsemen of Time [above]. At his on the bow, and he yells to the crowd: has a hit with Pete’s organize a monthly adult sing-a-long. “We’re going to be rebuilding this concerts, Pete made every person feel “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” dock, so I’m looking for volunteers.” When I complained to Pete about that they had a good enough voice. and Peter, Paul and Mary with I thought, I get to hang out with my lack of musical leadership skills, “.” Pete! The great thing about spend- he said, “It doesn’t matter if you can Marc Breslav ing time with Pete Seeger is that sing; it matters if you can bring other Pete hated being famous. I ran into being with Pete is pretty much like people together to sing.” him one day at Grey Printing in Cold 1965 being at a Pete Seeger concert. If we Spring shortly after the Great Hudson top the charts with Pete’s started slowing down, you know, Pete Steve Sherman River Revival had been closed in the “Turn! Turn! Turn!” would start singing a or a I had gone to the parking lot at middle of the day due to lightning. sea shanty to get us all banging away. the 1992 Clearwater festival and I “Hi Pete,” I said. When his back got stiff, he would saw Pete putting something into his He grimaced, avoiding eye contact. 1966 stand up and turn toward the High- car. Toshi drove up in a golf cart (she “How did Clearwater do money- lands and start yodeling. was running the festival) and I asked wise with that storm?” Pete and Toshi found Hudson River Between all these things, he’d give if I could take a photo of them. Unfor- The grimace brightened to a frown. Sloop Clearwater. little homilies. He’d say, “Well, you tunately, Pete wasn’t in the mood. “You know, all we have to do is get a know, if we all work together, we After I said to Toshi that Pete looked quarter-inch thick rubber carpet for the can clean up the Hudson River.” And tense, she grabbed his ass, he jumped, whole site,” he said, still averting his eyes. 1967 I thought, this guy is just out of his and she threw her arms around him. “Just have to make sure it’s recycled The ask Pete mind, because this is a damn dirty rubber, Pete!” to perform his anti-war song, “Waist river, and it’s an awful big river, and He looked me in the eye, smiling Deep in the Big Muddy,” during a there’s just no way. broadly. taping of their variety show, but it He’s like a combination of a Pied is cut by CBS censors. Piper and a Johnny Appleseed, and you Ellen Gersh couldn’t spend that much time with Pete Pete was really involved in the without him cajoling you into something. local schools. He played for chil- dren because he was blacklisted and Vickie Raabin couldn’t perform elsewhere. He real- I was lucky enough to have been in ized that social music was dying, that several concerts with Pete so he knew people don’t sing anymore since the me by sight, referring to me as “that invention of the phonograph. little music teacher.” I had bought a People get caught up in the celebrity used banjo and had it sitting in my of Pete, but he hated people fussing over studio on Main Street when Pete walked him. The best way to honor him is to by, stopped, came in and started play- sing and encourage young folks to sing. ing it. He fixed the bridge and asked if Also, to join the fight for equality for all I minded — of course not! To this day, people. If everyone put their energies whenever I get new strings the bridge is James Gurney into fighting the fight that Pete did, we always put back the way he adjusted it. Besides hearing him play at festi- would be on the right track. vals in the Hudson Valley, my family Brent Spodek got to know Pete through a tattered Tink Lloyd If you move to Beacon, or even think copy of his songbook. In 1991, when Pete knew my partner Joziah Pete Seeger performing at Yorktown Heights High School in 1967 about moving to Beacon, someone will my son, Dan, was a 4-year-old budding Longo and me by sight from the many Photo by James Kavallines/LOC

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Remembering Pete Seeger May 3, 2019 | E 1969 The Clearwater, a replica of a Hudson River sloop, is launched.

1982 Pete performs at a benefit concert for the Solidarity resistance movement in Poland.

1994 Pete receives the from President Bill Clinton, as well as the Kennedy Center Honor.

1995 Pete tells The Times: “I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it.”

Pete studies posters in 1964 announcing his concerts in Prague. Photo courtesy Gene Deitch 1996 Pete wins the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk concerts we had played together over Pete’s passion to reclaim the Hudson I felt honored when Pete asked me Album for Pete. He also is inducted into the the years [as The Slambovian Circus of River. “Phil,” he said, “if you want to to walk in the woods with him at a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Dreams], so he recognized us one day change the world, you start at home.” Clearwater festival. He wanted to in October 2013 when we walked into One year, I helped book Pete at point out the invasive species and the Foundry Cafe in Cold Spring. He the New Orleans Festival. As we alert me to events where people in 2009 had gotten off the train and needed a landed in New Orleans, I worried that waders pulled purple loosestrife out Pete and his grandson, Tao Rodriquez-Seeger, ride to Beacon, which we were happy to I had blundered by bringing a folk icon of the water. That was the day I leaned sing Guthrie’s “” provide. As we drove, and at his home, with his banjo to a loud party of a festi- about the mile-a-minute vine. with at ’s he gave us an update. val. But sure enough, Pete charmed inaugural concert. He was doing another edit of his them immediately with his spirit and Gene Deitch autobiography and had photos on the won them over with his songs. That’s Pete was an idealist, his mind wall from his whole life. He shared the when I realized how much he had come sharply focused on brotherhood and 2009 history of New York as we drove north to mean to us all. Pete was that rare sisterhood, and would barely discuss Pete wins the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk on 9D, how the quarry at Breakneck person who lived up to his ideals. anything else. He was a pure propa- Album for . Mountain provided the stones for gandist for his ideals. He referred the Brooklyn Bridge, the first trains to himself as a “communist” in the into , the beginnings of purest Karl Marx sense. I loved him 2010 , the first time for his purity of heart and his ideal- he met Martin Luther King Jr. at the Pete wins the Grammy for Best Musical Album for ism, as much as for his songs. U.N. (and saw J. Edgar Hoover drive Children for Tomorrow’s Children. When he was on a world tour in by in a black limo), being blacklisted 1964, about to come to Czechoslova- and Toshi having to become his book- kia, where I have lived since 1959, he 2013 ing agent (she built the performing felt he would be in a place of like-think- circuit that was the foundation for ers, and would be warmly welcomed in Toshi dies on July 9 at age 91. Baez, Dylan, etc., to tour). a Communist-ruled country. What he When we asked him what he didn’t realize was that he was coming thought we could learn from him and into a country that followed whatever 2013 how to carry on, he said. “If you do was written in the Soviet newspaper, Pete is nominated for a Grammy for Best what is right, it has an effect not only cleverly named Pravda (“Truth”). Spoken Word Album for Pete Seeger: The Storm on the future, but on the past, like Pete and his family were assigned King: Narratives, Poems. ripples in water.” That is the hope he to a hotel restricted to Western “capi- felt just four months before he passed. talist” business people. He never had Phil Ciganer with Pete and a painting by Michael D’Antuono that hangs at a chance to meet any Czech officials, 2014 Phil Ciganer the Towne Crier. and was booked into obscure venues Pete dies in a New York City hospital on Jan. In the early 1970s, when I came to and given virtually no press coverage. 27 at age 94. After his death, he is named the the Hudson Valley to open the Towne Nevertheless, his concerts were packed, inaugural winner of the Woody Guthrie Prize. Crier, I heard Pete Seeger lived in due to word-of-mouth and a few posters. Beacon, and I hoped to meet the Pete and I were doing a fundraiser Pete was perplexed by the lack of offi- great man. Sure enough, when one of and before I asked if he thought a cial support, and I had to explain it to our first scheduled performers was recent biography of him had been him in the most careful way. Ironically, detained by car trouble, Pete showed accurate. He nodded slowly and said, four years later came the short-lived up and volunteered to “fill in.” That, I “Yes, but there was one thing that freedoms of the Prague Spring, and a soon came to learn, was “typical Pete.” didn’t seem right. He said I worried label called Supraphon bought tapes I As we got to know each other, I about my career. I never gave a shit had made of Pete’s concerts so it could became involved with Clearwater and about my career.” release them as an album.

F | May 3, 2019 The Highlands Current Robert Murphy farmworkers or serenading workers In 1965 Pete was asked to perform on the picket line. a concert in the Beacon High School I am proud to have shared a stage gym to benefit the scholarship loan with this gentle man on a hot dusty fund of the Beacon Teachers Associa- Saturday afternoon in coal country. tion. The was escalating and Pete was an early and vociferous Eliza Nagel opponent. A few weeks earlier, Pete Here is Pete with my dad, Fred Nagel had performed a few anti-war songs at [below] in 2007 at a weekly peace vigil on Moscow University in the Soviet Union. Route 9 during the war in Afghanistan Feelings were still raw among some and Iraq. Pete carried the flag when he Longtime residents recall Clearwater set adrift residents about the singer’s failure in crossed Route 9 to sing a few songs with 1955 to assist the House Un-Ameri- counter-protesters. Their favorite was can Activities Committee. Immedi- “This Land is Your Land.” By Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong ately after the concert announcement, a committee of 12 civic, fraternal and emembered near and far for language; called the captain and his religious organizations formed to stop his folk music and political crew ‘Communists’ and much more. it, criticizing the board for allowing a R , longtime Highlands Peter Seeger got more than his fair “figure of controversy” to appear before resident Pete Seeger nevertheless share of abuse, as usual. When is this impressionable youngsters. encountered hostility on the streets going to stop?” However, the letters that poured of Cold Spring in an era not all Jan Thacher lived in a home on remember and few wish to discuss. into The Evening News were about Market Street at the time; his 5-to-1 in favor of the show. Writers At the time, the environmental and civil family rented rooms to the staff of invoked principles such as freedom rights movements had erupted, there Clearwater, whose office was then on of speech and the right to dissent. were violent divisions over the Vietnam Cold Spring’s Main Street. On the night of the concert, Nov. 27, War, and political differences convulsed “Pete knew he was not wanted in 1965, Police Chief Sam Wood and five communities large and small. The town,” Thacher said. ““Every time he unrest hit the Highlands, too. officers patrolled the gym. There was came, this group [of locals] would no need. No one was there to protest. In 1966, Seeger and his wife, Toshi, make his life miserable. He would Instead, it was filled to capacity. Pete created the environmental group hide his car in our driveway so no one sang 25 songs over two hours, includ- Damon Banks Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, would know he was here.” ing “Old Dutchess Junction” sung to which built a replica historic river When we first moved to Cold Thacher said friends would drive the tune of “Red River Valley,” and the sloop, launched in 1969 to promote Spring, my wife and I didn’t feel Seeger to the Clearwater office rather environmental protection. concert raised $3,000 [about $24,000 entirely comfortable. There isn’t a lot than have him walk the few blocks today]. Perhaps hearts and minds were of diversity and the area has a lot of Barbara Lusk, who lives in in the open. Toshi, who sometimes changed by this concert, and soon a racist/anti-Semitic history. Philipstown, worked in the Clearwater accompanied him, did not generate community was to learn more about Pete and Toshi saw me with my bass office from 1971 to 1973, and sailed similar antagonism, Thacher said. Pete and that … there is a time to every with Seeger. On the water, Seeger on the train platform one day, and Pete Seeger had been blacklisted, along “was absolutely terrific, very patient” purpose under heaven. asked: “Do you live around here? Do you with other left-leaning public figures, and knowledgeable, she said. “He know about the history of this area?” I entertainers, and writers during the didn’t talk that much about himself” political persecutions of the led Rob Abbot didn’t know who he was, so I rolled my but about the river and sloops, and In the early 1980s, a friend asked if I by Sen. Joe McCarthy and the House eyes and said, “Yeah, I heard about it.” “he did concerts along the way,” Un-American Activities Committee to wanted to play with him at a folk festi- He began to talk about how, because inviting the public to sail with him. val at the Appalachian South Folklife of his music, his political views and his root out alleged Communists. Yet early on, the Clearwater was a Center. I agreed, although I only knew “friends,” this area made it difficult for After Pete got off the blacklist in the target of local animosity. four or five chords. him to live in for many years. He said late , “one of the first concerts I can’t remember what songs we he stuck with it because of its natural So was Seeger. he gave was in Cold Spring at the played, but I do remember my shock bandstand” along the river, Thacher beauty, his family and the strong friend- On one occasion, several longtime being told we were “opening” for Pete recalled. “After that, Pete basically ships that developed. He thought that residents said, after problems beset came and went as he pleased. Seeger on the makeshift outdoor stage. my presence as a local resident (and an its rudder, the Clearwater tied up at However, there were still times when I’ve since learned that Pete played thou- African-American musician/teacher) the Cold Spring dock. That night, as he’d sneak into ” because of sands of gigs from such stages, enter- was a very positive development and it the crew rested — but perhaps not opposition closer to home — his wife.

taining college students or playing would be great if I “stayed in the neigh- with Seeger aboard — an angry band from the back of a flatbed truck for O slipped down to the dock and cut the “Toshi had forbidden sweets, cookies Next Page mooring lines, to set the boat adrift in particular,” Thacher said. “I’d often and into potential danger. catch Pete exiting The Main Course with a bagful, saying, ‘You can’t tell Toshi!’ ” The vandalism, recalled Marie Early, was a serious transgression that While Seeger returned to Cold Spring, troubled her father, who was mayor the Clearwater did not, for years. in that period. Because of a village law that banned visiting boats from using the dock, the “Cutting the mooring lines was sloop only returned in 2009, when it, a national offense,” said Early, a like Seeger, came for the Fourth of July. current village trustee. “Why no one was prosecuted, I don’t know. It was Seth Gallagher, who was then mayor, not a pleasant incident. The fortunate greeted Seeger, assuring him that he thing is no one was hurt.” and the sloop were welcome in the village. In a letter to the Putnam County News & Recorder in June 1970, Cold Spring “Seeger was so important,” Gallagher resident Yolande Slater Ogilby described says now. “We were lucky to have a Clearwater concert stop the week him in our community. He did such before when “once again local yokels good, especially for the river. We have caused trouble, cut lines, threw beer him to thank for the much cleaner cans and stones and used unprintable conditions we have.”

Pete with photos he hung on the wall while writing his autobiography Photo by Michael Bowman

Remembering Pete Seeger May 3, 2019 | G borhood.” He finally told me who he was (which blew my mind) and the three of us rode to together. That experience inspired us to stay.

Nell Timmer From 2003 to 2008, I owned a coffee shop in Beacon. Although it was pour- ONGOING ing rain on Spirit of Beacon Day in Remembering Pete Seeger 2004, we saw a hunched-over figure in BEACON a yellow rain slicker in the empty lot Howland Library 313 Main St. | 845-831-1134 next door picking up garbage. beaconhistorical.org We went out to see if the person The Beacon Historical Society has needed help and there was Pete. He mounted an exhibit of photos of Pete’s turned to us and said, “You know, life and times that continues through if everyone picked up one piece of May. Open during library hours. garbage a day, the world would be a much cleaner place.” Needless to say, FRI 3 we went back inside and returned with Open Mic our rain jackets and a garbage bag. BEACON and Pete Seeger performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. 7:30 p.m. Towne Crier | 379 Main St. Photo by Daniel Gómez-Ibáñez Nathalie Jonas and 845-855-1300 | townecrier.com Philip Nobel Sign-up begins at 5 p.m. to honor Pete came to welcome The Living [everyone called me that because of role of folklorist in trying to find the Pete’s life and music. Room to Main Street in Cold Spring in my dad], what brings you up here?” I latest hillbilly and race hits. He stood 2011 and, in the course of the conver- told him and he said, “I don’t like that up to things that usually break a man: SAT 4 sation, recited the Gettysburg Address teacher, either; let’s see if we can’t get political assassination at the hands “Oh, My Gosh!” for us. you an A.” And we did. Thanks, Pete. of his own government and offers of BEACON 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. Howland Cultural Center big money. He left this world a better 477 Main St. | 845-831-4614 Joe Neville Daniel Gómez-Ibáñez place but inequality and injustice brownpapertickets.com/event/4220280 It was the spring of 1966 and I I liked Pete Seeger. He and I corre- remain in newer, slicker forms. This group show will feature was failing high school English. The sponded on a couple of occasions, and A lot of people think Pete was works by 34 artists interpreting their teacher said, “Even if you pass the once, at my somewhat presumptuous enraged when Bob Dylan “went elec- experiences with Pete, along with a Regent’s exam, I will have to fail you invitation in the early 1960s, he came to tric” in 1965 at the Newport Folk series of 12 paintings by Dan Botkin unless you do something about it.” For my high school in Middletown, Connect- Festival but he said he was actually inspired by “Turn, Turn, Turn.” It the topic of my final report, I chose icut, to give a free concert. He was a big appalled at the sound quality. The P.A. continues through May 27. . I had a brain- hit with everyone, students and teach- had to be cranked so loud that it began storm (very rare). Instead of spend- ers. The idea to invite him came out of to distort and the vocals were rendered SAT 4 ing hours in the library, I would talk a conversation with my music teacher unintelligible. Pete was pissed that a Celebrating Pete Seeger’s to Pete. My father, Doug, owned the when I asked why she didn’t include folk song as good as “Maggie’s Farm” was Centennial general store at the foot of Mount music as part of the curriculum. being garbled to mush. BEACON Beacon. All the “mountaineers” Another classic Pete moment of 8 p.m. Howland Cultural Center unwavering commitment to quality 477 Main St. | 845-831-4614 frequented the store, including Pete, Al Scorch howlandculturalcenter.org sound is him gently explaining mid- so I knew him quite well. I drove up Pete was born as broadcast radio The tribute will include song to a massive crowd that clapping his hill and he was in his yard, hold- ushered out the player piano and an performances of Seeger’s songs by ing a handsaw. He said, “Hi Dougie infantile record industry played the along at Carnegie Hall doesn’t work. artists such as David and Jacob Bernz, Carolyn Doctorow, Lydia Adams Davis with Annalyse and Ryan, The Rix, R.J.Storm and Old School, and Spook Handy. Cost: $15 ($20 door)

Pete performs at the Clearwater Festival SUN 5 in 2008 with children from Beacon. Pete Seeger Festival Photo by Steve Sherman PUTNAM VALLEY 2 p.m. Tompkins Corners Cultural Center 729 Peekskill Hollow Road | 845-528-7280 tompkinscorners.org The fourth annual event will bring together friends who performed and worked with Pete. Donations will be collected for local organizations that Seeger created. Free

SUN 5 Turn, Turn, Turn! POUGHKEEPSIE 7 p.m. Bardavon | 35 Market St. 845-473-2072 | bardavon.org The Vanaver Caravan dance troupe will be joined by , , Tom Chapin and Seeger’s daughter, Tinya. Cost: $35 to $45

H | May 3, 2019 The Highlands Current

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